One-on-one with Adriano Pellegrino

After today’s closed door friendly fixture between the Central Coast Mariners and the Qantas Young Socceroos, new recruit Adriano Pellegrino spoke to ccmariners.com.au.

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After today-s closed door friendly fixture between the Central Coast Mariners and the Qantas Young Socceroos, new recruit Adriano Pellegrino spoke to ccmariners.com.au. Pellegrino shared his thoughts on last Saturday-s clash with Celtic, joining the Yellow and Navy, life on the Central Coast, the Scottish Premier League and the upcoming season.

How was the game out there today?
Yeah it was good. We had a big game on the weekend against Celtic so today was an internal friendly so it was a good run out, a good draw against the boys who are off to the World Cup soon. It was good preparation for us for the pre-season.

Talking about the Celtic game, what were your thoughts on the win?
The game was excellent. We have only had two games leading up to it and we-ve only been in training for really a month so our fitness levels weren-t of the best quality but we had a game plan and a structure and we were confident we could go on and win the game and that-s how the result turned out. It was good to get a crowd there and it was a good night, a very good night.

How is the pre-season training coming along?
The pre-season is coming along well. We have a long break as you know and we don-t start till October. We-re off to Canberra for a week to play some games over there and then we-ve got a bit of a break after that. It-s a long pre-season and we don-t want to be peaking too early.

As a new arrival at the Mariners, how is the Central Coast treating you?
Excellent, it-s been really good. I-m originally from Adelaide and I-ve been playing in Perth so moving down here has been really good. The boys had a lot of success last season, so I-m very happy and honoured to join the club. I-ve settled in very well, it-s a nice place on the Coast and it-s good for fishing. I-m a big fisherman so it-s a good place for me to be.

I hear you are roommates with Michael Baird. How is he to live with?
Yeah Bairdy is good. I-ve known Michael since we were at Perth Glory so I moved in with him and we all have our positive and negatives but we-ll keep that for a later date to explain.

I was just wondering where ‘Pedro- your nickname at Perth came from?
It just came from a young boy that was out on trial with me and for some reason he thought my name was Pedro Pellegrino. So anyway the coaches and players went with it so for the last four years I-ve been called Pedro. I think it-s really crossed the system here. Here I-m just known as ‘Pelles-. So we will let it slide for a little bit.

What is it like working with Graham Arnold and Phil Moss and how does it compare to your time at the Glory?
Yeah, excellent. I-ve had some great coaches at the Glory with David Mitchell and Ian Ferguson but it-s great to work under Arnie and Mossy. They-re both excellent coaches with a lot of success behind them and have both coached at really high levels. So it-s been really refreshing learning new ideas and I hope I can work with them for many years to come.

You were over in Scotland with Dundee in the Premier League for a few months. What was it like over there?
It was excellent. I was over there last pre-season looking for a contract over there and it was excellent. I completed pre-season with them over there. I think now Australian soccer is getting to a level where it-s competing with the clubs over there in Scotland and the professionalism here at Central Coast is just as good as what the clubs are overseas. It-s really getting good especially with the new facilities being built.

What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming season?
I think we-ve got a goal as a side to go to that next step. As a player, you always want to win things and the boys were so close last season but we-ve got to put that behind us and move on. So I think my personal goal is to try and break into the team and play well. As a team goal of course it is to win the Grand Final and not to forget the Asian Champions League coming up after that as well. But first and foremost is to concentrate on the season and set our sights on winning that title.